[VIDEO] Actually, Maybe it is the Camera: How the Leica Q2 Finally Got Me Excited About Photography

If you’re an aspiring photographer looking for advice on equipment, technique, or anything else related to producing the best photos possible, you’ll almost certainly come across YouTube videos, blog posts, and forum discussions relating different versions of the same broad maxim: It’s Not About the Camera. This line, and its cousin, “the best camera is the one you have on you,” is repeated so often in photography circles I’m surprised I haven’t seen it emblazoned on novelty t-shirts and hats. It’s not bad advice, necessarily, but it’s about as generic as the old watch enthusiast credo, “Buy What You Love.” OK, easier said than done if what you love is, I don’t know, complicated vintage Pateks, or if you’re new to the hobby and what you “love” isn’t so readily identifiable.

For years, with an understanding that the camera didn’t matter, I thought that my own photography was just incredibly bad. Whether my photos were taken on an iPhone (I’ve had so many iPhones), or any number of point and shoot, digital SLR, or mirrorless cameras, the shots produced never quite looked very good to me at all. Sure, I could grab a decent iPhone wrist shot if the light was helping me out, but my little experiments in photography over the years never took. I never developed a feel or a taste for it, stuck in a loop of equipment that I felt like I was fighting against and images that I didn’t like the look of enough to even consider that they could be improved upon. Also, photography is expensive, and time consuming, and I’ve always had a lot of other hobbies that didn’t frustrate me, so I’d revert back to those. 

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Last year, during the Windup Watch Fair in San Francisco, I splurged on a pre-owned Leica Q2 at Camera West. I freely admit here that I was straight-up influenced by colleagues and a general sense that a Leica is part of the watch enthusiast uniform, as silly as that sounds. It’s a stereotype that’s taken hold for reasons I can understand a little more clearly now that I’ve been using a Q2 for a little while – a camera like this would obviously appeal to watch collectors who are drawn to things that make it clear how well they’re made from the moment you lay a finger on them. They have a no expense spared, hand-made, ruggedness about them that is, in some hard to articulate way, the equivalent of a really well made watch, or that “bank vault” like precision people sometimes talk about when they close, for example, a Rolex clasp, or activate the chrono on a Datograph. Tactile feedback really matters.

Part of what helped me feel comfortable making the leap to a Q2 from a perfectly fine but not very exciting (to me) Canon M50 is that, as a watch collector, I have, for better or worse, become accustomed to that once terrifying “can I afford this?” arithmetic. The Q2, even pre-owned, is an expensive camera, but in watch terms, I knew that I could make some moves and unload a few pieces to cover the cost. This is how our brains work for just about any unneeded expense, and I was able to put myself in a frame of mind that this new camera’s cost could be a wash and it just might help me do my job better and, frankly, it would be fantastic to develop a new skill and enjoy a new hobby if this really takes hold. These stories we tell ourselves to justify pulling out the credit card will be familiar to many readers, I’m sure. 

Anyway, I want to stop here and admit that if you’re reading this and thinking that this guy who has always said he was bad at photography has no business buying a Leica, I can see your point and I won’t argue with you. But I didn’t come to Leica with zero experience, and part of me felt like I could not only learn how to take nice photos with this camera but actually enjoy it. That notion came from watching endless YouTube video reviews, talking to watch people and non-watch people who shoot Leica, and having a general sense of what a theoretical camera I’d actually want to use would actually be. 

A quick summary of my history in camera ownership is perhaps helpful at this point. In college, I owned and carried with me a Sony Cyber-Shot. It was small, and had a brushed metallic body that was easily pocketable, and also easy to forget at a bar or a party. I’m guessing it probably had 7 or 8 megapixels, and I clearly remember that the display model in the Best Buy I bought it at (could have been Circuit City – this was a long time ago) had a decal on the camera body calling out the 20X (or some equally huge multiplier) digital zoom. I’d learn later that the “digital zoom” on a camera like this with such a small megapixel count was basically worthless, a digital crop of an already small image that would lose most of its detail. This is a concept that has stuck in my mind for years and would come up again once I entered Leica world, but we’ll get to that later. 

That little Sony was used to take all kinds of photos during my college years that, if they surfaced, would ensure I’d never be able to run for office. I’d worry, frankly, about my GPHG membership, too. It served its purpose for snapshots and was part of that pre smartphone era where having a camera on you was important, and not a given. Think about it: when was the last time you heard someone say at a social or family gathering, “OK, who has a camera?” My guess is there are people reading this right now who have never heard someone ask that question, but for those of us who can remember the 1990s, it was common. 

The next notable camera that I’d completely fail to wrap my arms around was a Nikon digital SLR. The model number escapes me, but it was something between the entry level of the time (this would have been 2006 or 2007, most likely) and the more advanced pro options. I bought it from a stranger on Craiglist, and we met in the food court of the Steeplegate Mall in Concord, NH, which as I type is waiting to be demolished and has been vacant for some time, like so many American malls. I handed him a wad of cash and then I suddenly owned a much more serious camera and a few additional lenses, which at the time I was pretty clueless about. 

I spent a significant amount of time on photography forums gathering advice on how to use this thing. I don’t think I wanted to be a photographer, exactly, but I bought it more out of a love of gadgets, a notion that later would lead me home audio equipment (of the analog variety, mostly), another time consuming and expensive hobby. I learned all about the principles of photography with this camera: the rule of thirds, the role light plays in making an image, and how the focal length of a lens as well as its aperture and the camera’s shutter speed and ISO all contribute to creating a photo that’s pleasing to the eye. I understood these concepts, broadly, but was unable to harness them with this Nikon (or the Canon I eventually traded it, and those lenses, for). I blame it on laziness, bad timing, and also a user interface that I found to be fairly unforgiving. There was also an expectation (there still is) that images coming straight out of the camera would need some post processing to look their best, and, let me tell you, I just didn’t find that idea appealing at all. 

Years go by and I kind of forget about photography, but the watch world pulls me back in. My first time out with the Q2 was walking that San Francisco Windup, and while I wouldn’t call the photos I took that weekend magazine quality or anything, I really liked what I saw right away. More than that, I liked using the camera itself. The Q2 feels great in the hand, and it inspires confidence in a weird and intangible way. It also has a fantastic viewfinder and a large rear screen that gives you immediate feedback on your shot. This was the first “real” camera I’d ever owned that genuinely made me want to keep going. 

And over the last several months, I’ve kept going. Almost everyday I find time to photograph a watch or two at home. And my Q2 comes with me on walks around town, drives to nowhere in particular, work trips, and watch meetups. I’ve owned a “nice” camera almost everyday of my life since shortly after my college graduation, but this is the first time I’ve had one that I’ve wanted to take with me wherever I go.

It became clear to me very quickly that this was the key, at least for me, in getting the most out of photography. That old line about the best camera being the one you have on you is, of course, correct, but before you have a camera on you you’ve got to have one that you’re happy to use and fits into your lifestyle. 

The most rewarding thing about my Leica experience so far is that I’ve stumbled into a new hobby that allows me to be creative in a way that is detached somewhat from watches. I do, of course, enjoy the challenge of trying to take a nice watch photo – it’s the currency we all work in in the watch community, and looking at watch photos and taking your own is a great way to refine your technique, which of course pays dividends when you shoot just about anything else. But taking photos of the people and things I encounter day to day is what has really kept me interested. It’s helped me see my own city in a new way, and thinking through how best to capture what I see with my own eyes with the Q2 is a challenge that keeps me engaged with the device itself. I frequently find myself uncovering new (to me, at least) ways to use the camera creatively. In short, it’s fun, and it keeps me engaged in ways that other cameras haven’t. 

I’ve found, too, that while Leica has a reputation for being a brand attuned to the needs of serious photographers, it’s also surprisingly well suited to someone like me, who could easily be considered a novice. While it has most of the advanced options any professional would expect from a serious camera, it leads with simple and intuitive features that anyone can grasp quickly and use creatively. The lens can be switched to macro mode with a twist, making the wide 28mm focal length surprisingly versatile for watch photography. Leica has also made it possible to easily simulate longer focal lengths with the push of a button, adding a grid to the viewfinder that helps you frame shots at 35, 50, and 75mm. Is this feature a substitute for a camera with interchangeable lenses? Not if you’re a pro, I imagine, but in a pinch, while I’m walking around or experimenting with a watch setup, it’s great. It’s amusing to me that Leica has figured out a way to reframe the concept of the digital zoom (which is all this feature is, really) into something that can be genuinely useful. But that’s the benefit of a big, pixel rich sensor. We’re a long way from those little Sony Cyber-Shots. 

 

Last year, during Watches & Wonders week and prior to jumping headfirst into Leica ownership, I was surrounded, as I often am at these things, by incredibly talented photographers. Out to dinner one evening with Kat Shoulders (Leica owner), videographer Chris Coe (another Leica owner) and Lydia Winters and Vu Bui (friends of Worn & Wound, and both Leica owners) I realized quickly that I was the outlier – the entire table didn’t just own a Leica in the Q family, they were, if I remember correctly, all slung around their shoulders as we sat down. The conversation that evening was wide ranging but of course touched frequently on photography, and I remember at one point asking Vu to sell me on the Q. 

He touted its versatility and relative ease of use, and highlighted that it’s a fantastic camera specifically for wrist shots if you toss it into macro mode. At that moment, that’s precisely what he did, and he took a quick photo and showed me the capture on his Q3’s screen, and of course it looked great. There’s a touch of hubris, I’m sure, in thinking I can do that too, but it all seemed so remarkably simple I couldn’t help but imagine that with a little practice I might be able to pull off something similar, and that was a moment that helped crystallize the idea in my mind that maybe it might actually make sense to own one of these, even if, at the time, I was remarkably underqualified. 

Almost a year after that dinner, I feel like I’m getting pretty good with my Q2, but more importantly, I’m having a lot of fun using it. There’s no pressure – every time I take it out, I consider it a learning experience. Sometimes I get a shot or two I love and want to save, sometimes I don’t, and I’m learning to accept and embrace that, and I’m also learning when I can salvage an image in the editing process, something I no longer dread, and that no longer mystifies me. It’s one of the best things I purchased in 2024, even if you include the watches I added to my collection, and I’m looking forward to bringing the Q2 to Geneva this year, as well as to our Windup events, and on those daily walks around town. And as much of a caricature as it might seem, that next Watches & Wonders week dinner will have yet another Leica crashing it. 

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Zach is a native of New Hampshire, and he has been interested in watches since the age of 13, when he walked into Macy’s and bought a gaudy, quartz, two-tone Citizen chronograph with his hard earned Bar Mitzvah money. It was lost in a move years ago, but he continues to hunt for a similar piece on eBay. Zach loves a wide variety of watches, but leans toward classic designs and proportions that have stood the test of time. He is currently obsessed with Grand Seiko.
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